Trypanophora Kollar

Type species: semihyalina Kollar, India.

Species of this genus are small, robust, with relatively narrow forewings. The wings are generally black with hyaline or pale-coloured windows crossed by black on the veins. These windows are generally distributed in the Bornean species, but the type species (and most other mainland Asian taxa) has them restricted on the forewing to subbasal and postmedial areas, the latter large and surrounding the discal part of the cell.

The male abdomen has the eighth segment strongly modified, with the tergite apically bifid as in Phlebohecta; the sternite is deeply cleft between strong lateral processes. The genitalia are relatively simple, the valves being deeper than long. The valves are fused centrally across the diaphragm, with a sclerotised anellar tube extending dorsally from within the notch of a pair of flanges that form a central ‘V’. The aedeagus is sinuous.

Gardner (1942) described the structure of larva of the type species and illustrated the tubercles on T2 in cross-section, with the three most dorsal ones on each side having the central tubercle much larger and somewhat clubbed. The subspiracular ones are spiny, and there is complex spining generally on the skin, some types of spine being somewhat echinoid. The larva he described was discoloured through preservation. The coloration was described by Sevastopulo (1938): a general dark brown with a yellow lateral zone extending backwards from A6. The subdorsal tubercles on T2 are red, black on T3 to A6, yellow on A7. The dorsolaterals are red from T2 to A3, black on A4 and A5 and yellow posterior to that. The spiracles are black, and the venter and prolegs are orange-red.

Piepers & Snellen (1902 [1903]) described the larva of T. javanica Snellen, grouped with the type species by Yen et al. (2005), together with anchora Druce amongst other species. The back and flanks are red, sometimes blackish, sometimes more olive-green. The body tapers over the posterior half of the abdomen, where the flanks are distinctly paler, flesh-coloured or yellow. The rows of protuberances are blacker dorsally, but are reddish or yellowish on the flanks. Their apices are mostly glossy red.

The larva of T. flavalis Hampson (Burma, Peninsular Malaysia; Plate 9) has been reared by S.K.L. Hok in Peninsular Malaysia (H.S. Barlow, pers. comm.) and is illustrated below. It accords generally with the descriptions above in shape, the enlargement of the T2 subdorsal tubercle, and in general coloration, though it is perhaps more generally black. The subspiracular tubercles on A1–5 are reddish.

Robinson et al. (2001) listed the following larval host plant records for the type species:

• Carissa, Holarrhena (Apocynaceae)
• Bombax (Bombacaceae)
• Terminalia (Combretaceae)
• Shorea (Dipterocarpaceae)
• Ricinus (Euphorbiaceae)
• Barringtonia, Careya (Lecythidaceae)
• Lagerstroemia (Lythraceae)
• Ziziphus (Rhamnaceae)
• Rosa (Rosaceae)
• Gardenia (Rubiaceae).

Other species have been recorded from the plant families Anacardiaceae, Lauraceae, Malvaceae, Myrtaceae and Rhizophoraceae. The hosts recorded (H.S. Barlow, pers. comm.) for flavalis were Quisqualis (Combretaceae) and Etlingera (Zingiberaceae).